At the national level, which ministry is the nodal agency to ensure effective implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006?

Answer: (d) Ministry of Tribal Affairs

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is the nodal ministry for the Forest Rights Act, 2006.

The idea

The Forest Rights Act is not a forest-management law. Its opening words say it corrects a “historical injustice” to forest-dwelling people, whose rights were not recorded when forests were taken over by the State. It is a rights law for tribal and forest-dwelling people, so it sits with the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Colonial and later forest laws declared forests as State property → People living there became “encroachers” → Forest Rights Act, 2006 recognises their rights → A rights law for tribal people → Ministry of Tribal Affairs is the nodal ministry

Why the others are wrong

(a) MoEFCC handles forests but not forest rights.

The trap

A “forest” Act sounds like the Environment ministry’s job.

Also know

Three kinds of rights: individual rights over land being cultivated (up to 4 hectares), community rights (grazing, fishing, minor forest produce), and the right to protect and manage a community forest resource. Scheduled Tribes must have been in occupation before 13 December 2005; other traditional forest dwellers must show three generations (75 years) of residence and forest dependence before 13 December 2005.